It is to be a perpetual fund administered by not less than 9 nor more than 17 trustees, all heads of institutions or public agencies which are likely to be permanent. It is a fund which will have many unique features:
- No drives or solicitations, ever.
- Anybody, young or old, rich or poor, may give any amount from one cent up at any time by the simple process of depositing at a bank.
- Lists of givers to be published at least twice a year but without stating amounts.
- Trustees to have utmost freedom, within rules of prudent business management, to do anything at any time if it meets the test "for the good of the community" in the board.
- First goals will be to get adequate system of playgrounds and parks and clean up Odd Fellows cemetery and facilitate many betterments which have long eluded ordinary public agencies.
In support of the Century Progress Fund the paper comment ed editorially in the same issue:
It should accomplish many things which elude ordinary county, city, or school district action. The Yank sergeants who were here recently got a peek at the Century Fund charter and their comment was: "This is the doggondest community!"
We interpreted that as a compliment.
Commenting, in an editorial (November 19) on cash financing of municipal projects, the editor combined in one sentence two of his pet ideas. He said: "Sure, there is always good old Uncle, but he's up to his ears, and we rather like the idea that he has some thrifty and self-supporting nephews in Oregon." Home rule, and pay-as-you-go!
Matters of city and county financing received a tremendous amount of study and considerable comment during the year. One of the first articles published by the Register-Guard in 1943 (February 4) was an editorial urging a change of fiscal policy to call for payment of taxes by the Eugene water board, the city-owned agency supplying Eugene with water, light, and power. This was followed within a few days by other editorials arguing the same question and giving the readers much food for opinion in the matter. Exhaustive tables of figures were published, and one editorial said, "We invite careful study of the figures. They throw light on the problem." Other news stories and editorials on this question followed; one comment (February 28) under the heading "A Step in the Right Direction" praised a compromise bill introduced in the legislature providing for the taxing of city-owned utilities on an advalorem basis.
